Every Man a Menace

August 15, 2016
Hoffman follows his well-received debut, 2014’s The White Van, with an unrelentingly grim noir set in San Francisco that explores the violent underside of the drug trade from a variety of overlapping perspectives. The first section, which is the best, introduces small-time criminal Raymond Gaspar, who’s about to complete a four-year prison term that was the upshot of his arrest for possession of crystal meth and trying to sell a stolen boat. After Raymond’s release, Arthur, a power broker who “could make a call to the Black Guerilla Family or the Aryan Brotherhood and get action from either group,” turns to him for help. Arthur still has his hand in selling Ecstasy, but he’s not comfortable with the middlemen he’s been working with. He asks Raymond to get to know both Gloria Ocampo, who brings the narcotic into San Francisco, and her buyer, Shadrack Pullman, so that Raymond can protect Arthur’s interests. Though the format and basic story line are nothing new, Hoffman, a private investigator, makes his version feel real. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency.

How many drug dealers, dirty cops, lowlifes, and hapless victims does it take to screw up a $50 million shipment of the drug Ecstasy? When the assorted players are as desperate or dumb as the cast of this bleakly amusing, noir-saturated saga, even more than you might think.In the beginning, things seem simple enough for run-of-the-mill crook Raymond Gaspar. Just released from a four-year prison stretch but in no mood to go straight, he stands to make a decent score working for leading dealer Gloria Ocampo, who is a lot tougher than her middle-aged looks would suggest. One of her clients is Shadrack Pullman, a pill salesman who calls himself the "Molly Man"--Molly being slang for the drug in its purest form. Shadrack, of course, is not to be trusted, and Gloria's high-living, Miami-based Israeli suppliers, Semion Rosenstein and Isaak Raskin, aren't the most reliable operators either. Their exploits get them into deeper and deeper trouble with their suppliers in Burma; the sordid mishaps of their Thailand associate, Moisey Segal, only make matters worse. There will be blood--more in one gruesome scene than a character could ever have imagined. Divided into five distinct parts, with the final one circling back on the first, the book is distinguished by its virtuoso set pieces. In a nasty tour de force, Isaak, a wealthy club owner, falls so hard for a drop-dead Brazilian beauty calling herself Vanya that even after she sets him up seven ways to Sunday, he can't stop obsessing over her. Such is Hoffman's mastery of tone you don't know whether to laugh or groan. With its hard-boiled shenanigans and soft-minded crooks, Hoffman's follow-up to The White Van (2014) is another strong and original addition to the crime fiction genre. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 1, 2016
In The White Van (2014), Hoffman surveyed the roiling, combative world of San Francisco crime. This time, he's enlarged his canvas, focusing on an international chain of people engaged in producing, distributing, and selling the drug they call Molly: Ecstasy. Principals at every link in the highly lucrative chain are predators, preying on other links of the chain, and sometimes it ends in murder. Every Man a Menace seems a memorably apt title, but Raymond Gaspar and Semion Rosenstein are primarily dangers to themselves. Raymond, fresh out of prison, is chosen by a powerful gangster to gauge the stability of Shadrack Pullman, who sells the Molly in the Bay Area. Meanwhile, Semion, once an Israeli drug dealer who now co-owns several upscale clubs in Miami, is targeted by a beautiful, willful Brazilian woman from New Jersey; she turns Semion into a lovelorn teen. Other principals are apex human predators. Hoffman has crafted a powerful, albeit bleak, crime novel. It will be interesting to see what he does next.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2016

Having roared onto the crime fiction scene with 2014's The White Van, a finalist for the Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, Hoffman returns with a tale of Ecstasy (the drug, not the sentiment) and the people involved in a major delivery to San Francisco from the Far East. Featured at ALA.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2016

For his second novel (after The White Van), private investigator-turned-novelist Hoffman spins a complex, globe-spanning tale of the ecstasy trade that plays with time and perspective in striking ways. Raymond Gaspar is released from prison with instructions to moderate a rumored rift in the San Francisco MDMA pipeline, which runs through Gloria Ocampo, a well-dressed grandmother in her 50s. Hoffman then moves his story line back three months to introduce Miami club owner Semion Rosenstein, whose involvement in ecstasy smuggling takes a dark turn when he wakes up with the blood of a woman he'd become infatuated with on his mattress. That woman will reemerge, with a different name, as a free agent looking to cash in on Gloria's next shipment, which has become significantly more lucrative thanks to some fateful decision-making from Semion's contact in Bangkok. The novel's ambitious architecture is fun to work out and lends the final section a surprising amount of tension as all the pieces collide, but it comes at the cost of character development. None of them truly resonate once their final fates are sealed; then again, perhaps we're not supposed to connect too much to these scam artists. VERDICT A solid addition to most crime fiction collections from a promising author to watch. [See Prepub Alert, 4/25/16.]--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.